Reflection Two significant challenges in the Chinese language classroom are: 1) students’ difficulties in learning to read and write characters and 2) increasing opportunities beyond the traditional teacher-whole class format for authentic input and student response. There are commercial programs that would allow students to practice character recognition and view animations of character stroke order (in which the character appears in real time as if someone were writing it), but these require whole-class licenses or are tied to particular texts. The Chinese apps developed for iPad look promising and less expensive to use. I plan to explore some of these later this month. I have focused on the second challenge for the project presented on these pages. Using Voicethread (http://voicethread.com) is a way to allow learners to have one-to-one practice in both listening comprehension and speaking. Although this is a multimedia platform, it does share some characteristics of face-to-face communication: it is immediate; it is interactive to some extent as students can hit replay as often as needed; and it is multisensory as it contains both linguistic and extralinguistic clues (pictures). The Voicethread tasks created for this lesson meets both NETS*S and MFL standards for communication in which learners communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats. Two voicethreads that I have created for my Chinese classroom are: http://voicethread.com/share/1830424/ http://voicethread.com/share/1996694/ Three of the greatest benefits in using Voicethread are that 1) it allows for differentiation, 2) allows multiple students to engage in the task at the same time, and 3) it allows students to evaluate their own performance. 1) Students may listen to questions as many times as needed, and the teacher can vary the difficulty of the questions that are recorded with different pictures. 2) Initially, it is easiest to work with a small group in order to assist with log-in protocols. After students become comfortable with the website, it should be possible to work with more students simultaneously. 3) Students can listen to their own voices and re-record if they choose; and students can listen to other comments and try to improve their own recording. Three of the drawbacks are that it is fee-based and requires a license for student log-ins, it requires time for students to learn the log-in protocol and how to navigate the site, and at times the school server is very slow and students become bored waiting for the website to load. However, the fee is not exorbitant and with repetition students did become more proficient at logging in. The server is another issue!
Two significant challenges in the Chinese language classroom are: 1) students’ difficulties in learning to read and write characters and 2) increasing opportunities beyond the traditional teacher-whole class format for authentic input and student response. There are commercial programs that would allow students to practice character recognition and view animations of character stroke order (in which the character appears in real time as if someone were writing it), but these require whole-class licenses or are tied to particular texts. The Chinese apps developed for iPad look promising and less expensive to use. I plan to explore some of these later this month. I have focused on the second challenge for the project presented on these pages.
Using Voicethread (http://voicethread.com) is a way to allow learners to have one-to-one practice in both listening comprehension and speaking. Although this is a multimedia platform, it does share some characteristics of face-to-face communication: it is immediate; it is interactive to some extent as students can hit replay as often as needed; and it is multisensory as it contains both linguistic and extralinguistic clues (pictures). The Voicethread tasks created for this lesson meets both NETS*S and MFL standards for communication in which learners communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
Two voicethreads that I have created for my Chinese classroom are:
http://voicethread.com/share/1830424/
http://voicethread.com/share/1996694/
Three of the greatest benefits in using Voicethread are that 1) it allows for differentiation, 2) allows multiple students to engage in the task at the same time, and 3) it allows students to evaluate their own performance. 1) Students may listen to questions as many times as needed, and the teacher can vary the difficulty of the questions that are recorded with different pictures. 2) Initially, it is easiest to work with a small group in order to assist with log-in protocols. After students become comfortable with the website, it should be possible to work with more students simultaneously. 3) Students can listen to their own voices and re-record if they choose; and students can listen to other comments and try to improve their own recording.
Three of the drawbacks are that it is fee-based and requires a license for student log-ins, it requires time for students to learn the log-in protocol and how to navigate the site, and at times the school server is very slow and students become bored waiting for the website to load. However, the fee is not exorbitant and with repetition students did become more proficient at logging in. The server is another issue!